There has been a trend for some years in many metropolitan areas to increase population density in both new and rehabbed buildings. In areas having building codes which permit increased density, a given floor space is more and more frequently required to serve dual purposes: daytime living and/or working space followed by nighttime sleeping space. The Murphy bed concept, which was commercially introduced over a century ago, is ideally suited to this new trend since the floor space occupied by a bed at night is available as working space during the daytime, the bed being tilted upwardly to a vertical position in which it is in abutting contact with, or received in a recess in, an adjacent wall at night.
In recent years auxiliary furniture has been combined with the bed, such as a desk, the desk being arranged to be in an open working position during the day when the bed is in its out of use upright position, and then at night the desk being in a non-usable, out of the way position when the bed is in its horizontal, use position.
Although the general concept has been known for some time, certain difficulties have persisted over the years. One such difficulty is associated with the spring mechanism which is employed to raise and lower the bed, and auxiliary furniture if present. Specifically, many of the spring mechanisms in existing systems are very difficult to operate over portions of the operating cycle, such as the first portion of movement of the bed from its open, use position (when it is parallel to the floor) as it begins its upward movement toward its associated wall. In some cases as much as about fifty pounds of force may be required to initiate the upward tilting movement of the bed and this degree of force is difficult to apply for elderly people, or people of slight stature such as a woman who may weigh only about 110 pounds or less. There is therefore a need for a spring tilting mechanism which can be activated with only a few pounds of force over its entire range of movement including the commencement of bed movement from a horizontal to a vertical position.
A further drawback to many existing tilting mechanisms is that installation of a bed platform to a spring mechanism requires two installers.
It has also been thought that many existing tilting mechanisms could advantageously be made more user friendly and safer in operation.